A Drought Rains Hard Times on Zimbabwe

By SHEILA RULE, Special to the New York Times

Published: June 28, 1987

CHIBI, Zimbabwe—
In this parched patch of land in southern Zimbabwe, Elias Badza is known as Muponesi, the Redeemer.

Local residents gave the name to Mr. Badza, a farmer and owner of a general store, after he donated food and other goods to them during droughts. Now harsh conditions prevail again in this farming area, and the Redeemer, too, is suffering.

The fields of Mr. Badza's 1,850-acre farm are dry and largely barren. In years of good rainfall, he says, the harvest season for corn, the nation's staple food, runs from April to June. But Masvingo Province, in which Chibi is situated, has had only one good rain year since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. Chibi's harvest season this year lasted barely a month. More Buying on Credit

Daily receipts at Mr. Badza's store have dramatically dropped as more and more residents have fallen into poverty and begun buying on credit.

''We had a bit of rain in 1985 around here, but 1986 and 1987 have not been good at all,'' Mr. Badza said, sitting outside his modest home about 200 miles from Harare, the capital. ''People all around are having problms. They don't have crops and they don't have money. The drought is very, very bad.''

Zimbabwe is in the grips of its driest period in at least 40 years, agricultural specialists say. Wilted crops and dry riverbeds punctuate the landscape. In a nation heavily dependent on agriculture, the drought has cut export crops of tobacco, coffee, corn and oil seeds, worsening the foreign-exchange problem of recent years.

Rainfall has been significantly below normal in most of the country. The southern region, which traditionally gets less rain, has been hit hardest. The Government earlier this year began a major food distribution program in Masvingo Province. The National Farmers' Association has appealed to farmers, who suffered huge losses in past droughts when thousands of their animals died, to sell their cattle before they die from lack of feed and water. A Stockpile of Corn

But unlike its drought-affected neighbors, Mozambique and Zambia, Zimbabwe currently is in no danger of a severe food shortage.

The rains of the 1985-1986 season, which came after three years of drought, resulted in bumper harvests of corn and a stockpile of nearly two million tons - more than two years' domestic consumption. Although aid officials say there is now no need for food aid from international donors, Zimbabweans worry that food supplies could be sapped by a repeat of the long drought earlier in the decade.

The critical problem these days is water. In Chibi, where major rivers are at low levels and water levels in dams are dropping, women walk for miles to sandy riverbeds.

There, they dig with hands and hope until they unearth water for their families. Schools and health clinics in rural communities have been closed because of water shortages.

The major southern city of Bulawayo is rationing water. As the Government prepares to drill bore holes to try to locate underground water in critical drought areas, some people are drinking from rivers used by livestock. The result has been outbreaks of typhoid, bilharzia and diarrhea in some areas where a shortage of engineers and technicians frustrates efforts to provide adequate water.

Even drought-resistant crops have been unable to sustain normal growth. And many vegetable gardens have failed for lack of water, which aid agencies say has resulted in growing malnutrition in the south.

''You won't read about starving people in Zimbabwe,'' said Lucy Thomas, the representative in Zimbabwe for Africare, a Washington-based aid organization.

''But there will be a reduction in growth among children, especially ages 1 through 5, because they are not getting proper vitamins,'' she said. ''We are hearing about children who can't go to school because they are hungry and have to go searching for food and water.''